Like Dan Haren ingesting a ton of Imodium before one of his starts, NHL general managers plugged up their systems without much happening in terms of movement. Until yesterday, the league was caught in a giant stalemate, but yesterday’s transactions may open the floodgate and allow for more dialogue and opportunity for others to get in on the action.
One of the players who is receiving a lot of attention lately is Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Jonathan Drouin who permitted his agent, Allan Walsh, to release a statement that expressed Drouin’s desire to be traded.
Whenever news of this nature breaks, the offshoot is going to be one in which every outlet grabs onto the story and rag dolls it like Zdeno Chara on Bryan McCabe while each and every team’s blog community congregates and conceptualizes what it will take to get Drouin in their favorite team’s colours. Hell, it’s no different on this site.
When Bob McKenzie pens an almost 2,000 word article outlining how the relationship between the Lightning and the player deteriorated and follows it up with a number of radio spots, it’s a next level predicament.
What is interesting about McKenzie’s Drouin conversations is the frequency with which he links the Senators’ interest to Drouin.
“I believe there are upwards of a dozen NHL teams with varying degrees of interest (please note emphasis on “varying degrees”) in Drouin.
Alphabetically listed, I’d say: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Columbus, Montreal, Nashville, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Vancouver and Winnipeg, among others.”
Just because the Senators have shown genuine interest doesn’t mean that fans should get their hopes too high that a deal can be struck however.
In an interview on Montreal’s TSN 690 yesterday morning (transcription via Chris Nichols from Today’s Slapshot), McKenzie admitted that “the Ottawa Senators aggressively would like to get Jonathan Drouin, and I don’t think they’re getting off the mark with the Tampa Bay Lightning any more than the Montreal Canadiens will.”
McKenzie cautioned that the Lightning will be guarded against trading the high-upside 20-year old within their own Division.
“Now, I could be wrong on that. Here’s the thing. In order for a team like the Montreal Canadiens or the Ottawa Senators – who both could use Jonathan Drouin – in order for them to get Tampa to trade them that player within the division… In other words, Tampa is going to see Jonathan Drouin coming into their building playoffs, you name it – it’s going to be constant. In order for Tampa to live with the prospect of that, the offer that Montreal or Ottawa or any team within the Atlantic Division would have to come up with would have to be light years better than anybody else.
“And when Jonathan Drouin gets traded, I firmly believe that it’s much more likely – not 100 percent guaranteed – but much more likely to be in the Western Conference than the Eastern Conference.”
Poor Bryan Murray.
He’s probably thinking, “Shit! If only I knew Yzerman felt this way about young players before he actively sold me on Cory Conacher.”
Brennan Calls Out Turris
Kyle Turris has zero points in his last 10 games played, so naturally, it was inevitable that his lack of production would face some scrutiny.
After Dave Cameron called out the Mika Zibanejad, Bobby Ryan and Mike Hoffman line earlier in the week, the Ottawa Sun’s Don Brennan felt that if Cameron also wouldn’t call out Turris for his lack of production, he’d take it upon himself to call on Turris to be better.
It’s worth noting however, that during this same stretch of games, the Senators have attempted 56.0-percent of the five-on-five shots and generated 55.0-percent of the scoring chances with Turris on the ice. Like last night’s shift where Roberto Luongo robbed him with a strong left pad save, Turris has been snakebitten of late, but when he’s not producing, at least he’s contributing on the other side of the puck and impacting the game from a possession standpoint. In that regard, the Senators have been on the wrong side of the possession battle whenever Ryan and Zibanejad line have been on the ice together at even strength.
The results aren’t there, but the process is.
It’s always possible that some of what ails Turris could be attributable to whatever nagging injury seems to be affecting his right arm.
Even if he is still banged up, Turris’ points should come if he sustain this kind of play. If anything, this cold spell simply balances out Turris’ ridiculously hot start that was spurred in part by a ridiculously high on-ice shooting percentage.
Other News and Notes:
– Although I can’t stand Bleacher Report’s site and style, Jonathan Willis penned an excellent piece detailing what makes Erik Karlsson so good. It’s definitely well worth your time to read it. So go read it. DO IT NOW!
– David Dziurzynski cleared waivers yesterday at noon and has been successfully been returned to the Binghamton Senators.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
